BLOG: Dangers of leaving kids, pets in cars

Having just celebrated the un-official start to summer (Memorial Day), it’s a great time to start thinking about how the summer heat can pose life-threatening dangers.

It is especially dangerous when it involves children or pets being left inside automobiles. We hear about it every summer… a young child or family pet accidentally or intentionally being left inside of a car or truck.

Here are a few facts based on a mildly warm 80 degree afternoon:

With the windows rolled up the ambient air temperatures inside the car will climb to 99 degrees in just ten minutes.

After twenty minutes, the temperatures soar to 109 degrees. If you’re trapped inside the suffering has already started.

In the next ten minutes, the temperature has risen to a sweltering 114 degrees. Heat stroke is a very real possibility at this point.

And after the sixty minute mark, the temperature inside the car will likely climb to around 123 degrees.

That’s how a car becomes an oven. Since 1998, hundreds of people have died from vehicular related heat stroke.

In 2010, 49 people died as the result of being left in a hot vehicle. Very young children are especially susceptible to heat stroke. And with the numbers listed above, there’s never an excuse to leave a person or a pet inside a hot car… not even for a minute.

It’s almost impossible to write stories about Santa without fears of ‘ruining the magic’ for any child that may be watching. But we found a way with this one. A Gaston County USPS carrier has opened mailboxes on his routes and found dozens of letters to Santa in the past month.